Copyright cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio - As Joe Flacco continues to light up NFL defenses with the Bengals, Browns fans are forced to watch yet another former Cleveland quarterback succeed elsewhere. During Cincinnati’s loss to the Bears on Sunday, Flacco threw for a staggering 470 yards and four touchdowns, prompting discussion on the latest Terry’s Talkin’ podcast about what this means for the Browns. “Yeah, bring Joe back with this offense and Jim Schwartz’s defense and look out, you will see the greatest second-half run in NFL history with that,” cleveland.com columnist Terry Pluto said, half-jokingly envisioning a world the Browns’ elite defense could join with a Browns offense producing like Cincinnati’s is with Flacco. The painful reality for Browns fans is watching Flacco average 313 yards per game with the Bengals, not far off the 323 yards he averaged during his successful five-game stint with Cleveland in 2023. The contrast between his Bengals success with Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins and the Browns’ current offensive woes couldn’t be more stark. The Browns will try to jump start things on Sunday vs. the Jets as offensive coordinator Tommy Rees takes over play calling from head coach Kevin Stefanski. “That’s the most confounding thing with me is what happened to this,” Pluto said. “This looks like the same garbage from last year, other than that little flurry of games when Jameis Winston was hot and Ken Dorsey was calling plays. “But, I mean, at this point, after eight games a year ago, they were 2 and 6 and averaging like 15 points a game, and now they’re 2 and 6 and they’re averaging only 15 points a game. And Ken Dorsey steps in, and now Tommy Rees steps in. It’s like, can’t we at least have a little bit of a different movie to watch?” This pattern has prompted listeners to email their frustrations. One fan wrote: “Let’s not forget that they sent Baker Mayfield packing along with Joe Flacco, who are also enjoying a resurgence of their careers. My point is this: These guys can’t identify a good quarterback.” The podcast tackled the question of whether Flacco would be having similar success if he had remained in Cleveland. While Pluto acknowledged the Bengals have superior receiving talent, he pointed out that Flacco produced in Cleveland with a less impressive supporting cast in 2023. “He had Amari Cooper, but I don’t even remember who the other receivers were,” Pluto said. “He had David Njoku. But the other guys on that team were nothing special, and he was doing Flacco like he’s doing Flacco now.” This raises the chicken-or-egg question that has plagued the franchise for decades. As Pluto put it: “Have they had so few good receivers here because of the poor quarterback play, or have they had so few good quarterbacks here because of the poor receiver play?” While the Bengals have surrounded Flacco with playmakers like Chase and Higgins, the Browns’ receivers have struggled with drops and route running this season and been one of the NFL’s least productive groups. And some fans wonder whether any quarterback could succeed with the Browns and their current supporting cast on offense. Flacco certainly didn’t in his four games with the Browns this season, going 1-3 while completing 58% of his passes and averaging 203.8 passing yards per game. With the Bengals, he’s completing 64.7% and averaging 313.5. It’s another chapter in the long-running quarterback saga that inspired Pluto’s new book, “Why Can’t This Team Just Find a Quarterback?” Here’s the podcast for this week: If you have a question or a topic you’d like to see included on the podcast, email it to sports@cleveland.com, and put “Terry’s Talkin’” in the subject line. You can find previous podcasts below.
